This saying is used to deride ordinary, unskilled workers who try to perform skilled tasks beyond their competence. It can be used to make fun of anyone who pretends to know something but is actually incompetent.

gahm ahghuh bahgahs eh gahm mahghuh – either the salt is missing or the shaker

Endeavors remain incomplete because of inattentiveness or negligence. It is a great quality to be able to pay attention to details. It requires concentration of the mind to “get one’s ducks in line.” Intelligent work by which one can get something done the “first time” indicates good planning.

Every human is endowed with mind and intelligence. The mind is the sixth sense that receives information from the senses and then stores it. The intelligence makes value judgments to determine whether the information is relevant (good or bad) for one’s life. The intelligence is the discriminating power of the person. An Armenian proverb stresses this point, ehssuh eench keedeh, noushuh eench eh – an ass doesn’t understand the value of an almond. When a fly When the intelligence loses control and the mind runs wild, the person is in deep trouble and life threatening danger.

Good intelligence is respectable and often a rare thing as the Armenian proverb states,
khelhkuh vohsgeh tahk eh, ahmen mahrtoun kuhloughkheen chee leehnoum, intelligence it like a golden crown that is not appropriate for the head of (every) man (or intelligence is like a golden crown that doesn’t fit on everyone head).

Good intelligence is precious and rare. khehlogheen mehg, uhnkhehlkeen hahzahr ou mehg – the intelligent and well behaved are one(few), but the unintelligent are a thousand and one (or for every intelligent man, there are one thousand and one unintelligent (or dunces).

Without good intelligence or discriminating power to determine what is true and what is not true, one never can achieve any significant goal in life. For example, an Armenian proverb says, an ass went forty times to Jerusalem, but it is still an ass – ehsuh kahrahsoun ahnkam Yehrousaghehm eh kuhnatzehl, paiytz (ehli) ehs eh muhnatzehl.

One mark of an intelligent man is that he avoids the close company of foolish or ignorant men. An Armenian proverb says, yehgheer keedounee kehree, mee leehneer ahnkehdeen seerehlee – better an intelligent man’s slave, than the sweetheart of an ignorant man.